Regardless of how the season ends, this is match I anticipated most. Two of my three favorite teams will battle for three days of sure-to-be-epic Brood War. Khan, team of never-ending-protoss, most struggle against the zerg hardened line of Stars. While ZvP is fairly balanced this proleague season, (51.1% thanks Bisu) Khan will have a tough time against ZvP masters ZerO and SoulKey. Likewise, Stars is facing problems outside their Zerg lineup. Terran ace Light, has laughable TvP and Really struggles to win without Dogspa interference. In form, Free can reverse the tide, but he struggles with a 35.3% win rate since March.

The match kicks off with Circuit Breaker. Terran Newbie hOn_sin is a ridiculous 6-0 on this map. Slumping Stork (7-3) would be a good choice to start off, except for SoulKey (9-6) waiting in the wings. Expect Khan to play it safe with Reality (maybe great). Either way, I expect a slumping SoulKey or nervous hOn_sin to drop the first set. SoulKey < Reality 0-1 KHANOn Neo Beltway—aka Terran-Turtle-Town—expect Stars to send out Light or Really. Reality is safe pick for KHAN, however Stork would be the smart choice. Light, who is actually 7-3 in his last 10 games could beat Stork straight up. However, I think Light will panic and cheese, or Really will just fail. Light < Stork 2-0 KHANLooking Grim for Stars, La Mancha might turn things around. Grape, for what ever reason, is 9-3 on this map, and 61.5% vZ overall. We might see Light (8-4) or even Flying (7-3) from Stars. Still Grape is a rookie not used to high pressure games. Flying? > Grape 1-2 KHAN.Alternative isn't really imba PvZ. Bisu is imba PvZ, and without Bisu, this map is 50:50. Regardless, ZerO or SoulKeyiS my pick from Stars. ZerO is only 3-2, but most of that is 2-2 ZvZ. Khan would do well to send out ByuL (3-1) or great, but they will send out someone like Juni or Brave instead. Why? Trolluary. ZerO > Juni 2-2New Bloody Ridge. Even though Protoss has a losing record vs both Terran and Zerg, this has become this seasons PvP map. JangBi (4-1) iS a popular choice on this map, but I see Brave (5-4) being played instead. On the Stars side, Woon is 5-1, when you factor in the prelims, however this map is the only real chance to play free (3-2). If JangBi isn't fielded, free will bring out what is left of his A game. Else, Woon will 3-hatch hydra fake Brave. Woon > Brave 3-2 Stars.Neo Aztec, epic map of this season. If he hasn't come in to play yet, expect Khan to field JangBi. Since the beginning of May, JangBi is 13-2 in standard games, with closes losses to Hydra and Jaedong, and is currently sitting 4-2 on Neo Aztec. Stars might try out ZerO (6-3) or Light (1-0), but if JangBi is actually playing on this map, both would be wasted. Instead, I will be boring and predict free. I know, I made the same prediction for Bloody Ridge, but at least in a mirror, free stands for a BO win. No matter who Stars sends, JangBi storms everything. free < JangBi 3-3New Empire of the Sun is a headache for both teams. A common TvT and PvT map, Khan wants to field Stroke (2-1) or JangBi (0-0 but still awesome), but ZvP is 3-1 and ZerO is to risky for Stroke. Of course, Stars can't send Light (0-3) with the high chance of a PvT. ZerO would be great, except this map is horribly imba TvZ. Khan will either play it safe with Terran Reality or resend JangBi. Stars could do the same with Light or Really, but this is the playoffs, and I don't see anyone as Ace but ZerO. What we all want to see: ZerO <= JangBi 3-4 KHAN. What Trolluary will actually do: ZerO>great/TurN 4-3 Stars

Samsung KHAN has had the experience of winning their first match against CJ Entus in the 08-09 post season and then losing from behind, missing their chance of going further in the league. Because they have experienced being in high spirits and having it all crash down in one moment before at that time, even though Samsung has won day 1 of the Round of 6 playoffs against Woongjin, Stork said, "We will not be unprepared for what is yet to come." Although his results in the regular season were not that good, even though Stork who has much experience in the post season is nervous about it, with the goal of wanting Samsung to go high into the upper leagues, now is a critical stage where everything must be able to go smoothly.

Q: Your thoughts on winning?A: Out of all the Protosses on our team, my mood is the lowest among them, but it's a relief that I won. I'm happy that I was able to be of help to Samsung winning their 1st match in the Round of 6 playoffs.

Q: Did you get motivation from the rookies' victories?A: Reality did well as usual, and Grape had also defeated Really before in the regular season. Since I had faith that they would do well in the future as well, I thought that I just had to do well so our team could win, so it seemed that there weren't any problems.

Q: You played against a rookie, but did you expect your opponent's strategy at all?A: I thought of all the possibilities that could be used against me and prepared for them. Rather than having a planned strategy in mind, I let my intuitions and instincts lead the game. The build that Woon used today was one that I practiced against Captain oDin in the past, and since I defended against it successfully it was a huge help to me.

Q: You encountered many "Nalbil"s from Zergs in the regular season; did experiencing so many help you out? [T/N: Okay, "Nalbil" is Korean slang for a clever build, but I believe that it means cheesy builds in this context. Poor Stork, dying to so much cheese this season. ]A: Many of my losses in the regular season were due to build order losses, so I took that opportunity to think over it a lot. I wanted to have no trouble whether I won or lost, so the moment I saw that build today, I had a feeling that I had seen it before.

Q: Your goal for day 2's match?A: I remember how we won our 1st match against CJ and then lost 2 years ago. I'll set aside my happiness over today's victory for a moment and practice hard for tomorrow's match. Tomorrow we'll definitely settle the score and go to the semi-playoffs.

Q: Any last words you want to say?A: It's been a long time since we made the post season like this, so with half nervousness and half excitement I practiced until dawn, but I slept early in the morning and woke up. After a close hyung of mine who is currently enlisted in the military saw the articles that our team had advanced to the post season, he gave me a call. I hope that he stays healthy and takes care of his body in the military.

Congrats to Samsung for winning their first match against Woongjin, and I would translate Coach January's interview if the match wasn't starting in like 5 minutes! So here's a long time no see picspam instead!

Trolluary: "Hmmm... To troll, or not to troll today.... That is the real question....."

Really gets sent out against Grape! What's Samsung's reaction to this?

Stork: *Watching Really's play* "........."Jangbi: "Damn bitch, what the hell was that? Even I could play better Terran than that!"

How about Woongjin's reaction then?

ZerO: *Watching Really's play* "So... This is our 2nd best Terran playing right now?"Light: "Yup."ZerO: "And why do I have a feeling that our best Terran will get owned as well....?"

Really: *After losing to Grape* "Did I... Did I just get Graped....? For the 2nd time this season.....?"

*Reality, after winning against Light*

Reality: "Did you... get a taste of reality, Light?? Lololololol-"

Stork: "January, this bitch keeps on bothering me! From stealing mah seat to nagging me during the game, you gotta keep his ass off me!"Coach January: "Why do you keep on bothering Stork?! Do you have the hots for him or something?!? Do we have to deport you off to Woongjin?!?? I think that their team's style fits you better than here!!"

Samsung's reaction when free gets sent out:

...a standing ovation.

Brave: "Oh man, we have this game in the bag already."Sharp: "His name is so true! A free win to all!"Stork: "Good work team, I'm proud of you guys."Juni: "Heck, even I'm doing better than him these days!"

ByuL's BM ceremony against free:

Well, at least he didn't do a manner hatch!

Woongjin's coach Lee Jae Gyun: "...why did I send out those guys again? And why did I just do worse than Trolluary today?"

So excited to finally see Stars make the playoffs. I started following the BW scene in November '08 and quickly latched on to Zero as my favorite player and Stars as my team by extension. In both previous seasons I followed it seemed like Stars should have been good enough to make the playoffs but then both seasons they massively choked at some point. Hopefully with Zero finally making a SL final and Stars making the playoffs the age of choking is over!

On July 09 2011 03:29 Jaksiel wrote:So excited to finally see Stars make the playoffs. I started following the BW scene in November '08 and quickly latched on to Zero as my favorite player and Stars as my team by extension. In both previous seasons I followed it seemed like Stars should have been good enough to make the playoffs but then both seasons they massively choked at some point. Hopefully with Zero finally making a SL final and Stars making the playoffs the age of choking is over!

Coach Lee finally realised that the only way they were ever going to make the play-offs is to buy another team's Ace player. And what better player to get than the one you rejected when he was an amateur. When in doubt, splash the cash.

On July 09 2011 03:29 Jaksiel wrote:So excited to finally see Stars make the playoffs. I started following the BW scene in November '08 and quickly latched on to Zero as my favorite player and Stars as my team by extension. In both previous seasons I followed it seemed like Stars should have been good enough to make the playoffs but then both seasons they massively choked at some point. Hopefully with Zero finally making a SL final and Stars making the playoffs the age of choking is over!

Coach Lee finally realised that the only way they were ever going to make the play-offs is to buy another team's Ace player. And what better player to get than the one you passed on when he was an amateur. When in doubt, splash the cash.

On July 09 2011 03:29 Jaksiel wrote:So excited to finally see Stars make the playoffs. I started following the BW scene in November '08 and quickly latched on to Zero as my favorite player and Stars as my team by extension. In both previous seasons I followed it seemed like Stars should have been good enough to make the playoffs but then both seasons they massively choked at some point. Hopefully with Zero finally making a SL final and Stars making the playoffs the age of choking is over!

Coach Lee finally realised that the only way they were ever going to make the play-offs is to buy another team's Ace player. And what better player to get than the one you passed on when he was an amateur. When in doubt, splash the cash.

Lol, someone's bitter about Light's trade.

Not bitter but sad. All MBC fans/players still are. The points are true though.